What Do I Do When I'm Alone?

The title is inspired by this little ditty. Grover. Always manages a tearjerker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnw7hNjex_k

Well, I've been working hard, writing applications, emailing principals, wading through school websites.... but that stuff isn't that exciting to read about, so I'm going to show you what I've been doing with the rest of my time. Two words: kids. food.


I'm pretty proud of my cooking skills this year. Just a sampling of what I can do when I'm alone. Portion sizes have been a little tough but... then it just turns into a midnight snack! :)



my neighbors felt bad for me, so they sent over sopa de gallina (hen/chicken soup)



they also sent pupusas :)




This I made myself, and it was delicious! Popcorn chicken and french fries. :)



BBQ Chicken with green beans and onions. Also, some fresh raspberry juice!




Breakfast of champions- eggs, toast, and platanos!!




I gave each kid four lempiras and set out things that they could buy- candy, juice, stickers, bandaids :) It was pretty successful :)



We had movie day- watched Tangled and ate popcorn!



The girls' favorite thing to do is play dress up with my clothes. My shirts fit them like dresses and they always fight over who gets to wear the silver high heels.



I was washing my laundry and Ana Sugey climbed in my laundry basket. Precious :)



They say imitation is the best form of flattery.... Daniela decided to tan after she saw me sitting out for awhile :)



And now.... back to job searching! :)

theologicalizing my life.

Dear Blogging Audience,

There are very few times that I do not enjoy my life in Honduras, so most of my blogs are fun and exciting and full of reasons why all of you should want to live here also! Well... this blog is not going to be one of those haha

1) We have not had water for a week.

2)As I said in my last post, this coming week is Semana Santa, and all the teachers are leaving for the beach. I decided to stay behind to work and save money, blah blah, blah. Well, Friday afternoon, we were leaving school, and one of our neighbors called to say that the electricity company was cutting off our electricity.... And let me explain why.

We haven't always paid for our electricity, but in January, they installed a meter to our house so we started to pay. The way it works is the meterman comes and checks it and prints off a bill which he will either tape on your door or give to a neighbor. Then, you take that paper to the bank and pay your bill there. That was fine for the first month.... the second month, we brought our bill to the bank and the people there said the writing was too faint to read, so we couldn't pay it. We tried to go to the actual electric company, and they said they would just tack it on to our next month. So, next month rolls around. We got the bill, I put it in a special, specific place so that we wouldn't lose it. Of course, we lost it. Don't know how, don't know where, but it's gone. Cue the power company. So, we lost power on Friday night, and everyone left for vacation on Saturday morning. I decided to walk to town and see if I could figure anything out. These walks down to town are always pretty interesting for me because I'm usually walking alone,and I start some deep thinking. This week's topic: Why is this happening? :) Is it because God is trying to tell me to get the heck out of here (another question: would God say 'heck'? :)) and He's showing me reasons to be happy to go? Or is He trying to make it as difficult as possible for me to try and find a job in the States, therefore, I'd have to stay here? :) I decided to call my mom. She's better at answering these questions than I am... and I wanted to vent :) There are some calling packets on my phone, so I bought one. Except that the one I bought didn't come through on my phone. Instead, I got 5 minutes to call Spain (for those of you interested, it costs the same to call Spain for 5 minutes as it does to call the US for an hour...) Now I do know someone in Spain, but I don't have his number, nor would five minutes be enough to fully express my ventilating!

My mom wasn't actually avaiable when I finally figured out the package; I did talk to Olivia for awhile, which was helpful. :) By that time though, I was out of money and even crabbier. So then.... I started thinking, "Now, is God doing THIS because He wants me to figure this out on my own? Do I need to find someone else to talk to? Do I vent too much? Is this the part where I stop thinking about it and trust Him? Or is this the part where I use my resources to figure something out? Is it punishment for not being more responsible? ... and on and on and on.

I got to town, stood in line for TWO HOURS at the bank to get money out of my account (it would be so nice to have an ATM sometimes!), grabbed a few groceries for my week alone, and tried to figure out the electricity thing. Apparently, the only way to pay your bill is to actually have the bill, or to have a code that is printed on the bill- neither of which I had of course. So, I went back up on the mountain and enjoyed the couple hours of sunlight I had left.

Now, the electricity thing doesn't need to be terrible. Maggie and Tyler actually left the keys to their house, so I was able to use their kitchen for my supper and take a shower (their house has water!), but mostly I was worried about the internet and how I was going to get all the work done that I needed. Another of my friends had left the keys to her apartment, so I thought I could just stay in town for the week and use the internet at one of the restaurants there, but then there was the question of trying to have a cheap week, not buying food, not going up and down the mountain... it was just going to be a big hassle. And, that's the part that I mostly didn't understand. Now, I know, people go through this everyday- trying to decide if God cares, or if He's really in complete control, and if He is, why He allows bad things to happen.... I know that everyone goes through those thoughts, and usually they are for much bigger questions than, "What am I going to do in the States next year?" still, I thought them. :) And I really don't get it. What is the point in my power going out, and me having to figure out all these extra things, when I was actually trying to be responsible? I've realized that I always need answers- in my relationships, with my students, in my own head. I want to know WHY someone is doing something. I think that was my issue last night. I tried calling my parents again, still not that great, ate some supper, and went to bed.

This morning, I was doing laundry over at Maggie and Tyler's, and one of our neighbors said that Samuel (a guy that lives up here on the mountain, and has been flirting with me quite a bit ever since my usual boy protectors, Ramon and Tyler, have left for vacation..) anyway! Samuel said he could fix our electricity and turn it back on because the office won't be open all this week because of Semana Santa. Now, I'm not sure if he just did this to try to make it so I'd have to pay him back somehow... but he fixed it. It's also possible that it was fixed illegally, but here I am, typing a blog from my house with my refrigerator running and my lights working. So, did God use a boy's possible immoral motives, or very probable illegal activity to answer my prayer? .... no idea. And, it kind of hurts my head to think about it all, but I'm probably going to continue thinking this way for awhile, right? Maybe all of this was just to scare me a little to insure that I DO work tomorrow and Tuesday and however long it takes to apply to every school I can find. :) And yes, maybe it's naive to think that all the little problems that were happening to me were all a part of God's plan but... that is what I believe don't I? That God has everything happen for a reason? even if it's something silly like causing a bill to just disappear randomly just in time for everyone to leave on vacation and then have the power turn off so that I would have to deal with it and figure it out and learn something.....? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Let me know your thoughts :)

Sincerely, the always rambling,

Laura Beth

I've been keeping myself busy....

In the last month, I have....

~~had a visit from my mom and our friend, Jennifer!
~~reorganized how I run my classroom
~~crashed my computer
~~stayed up past 11 on at least 5 occasions during the week
~~discovered a sweet new podcast
~~completed my third quarter grades 2 weeks ahead of time (and I only have one
student failing!)
~~gone to Santa Rosa on a girl's weekend (also new hair cut debut!!)
~~planned out my Semana Santa
~~started thinking about going home

First of all, my week with visitors. It was such a good time, but it was so fast! My mom and Jennifer came in on a Friday, we stayed the night in San Pedro Sula, and traveled to Copan Ruinas on Saturday. I have a mototaxi friend named Jose who was super helpful in showing us around and finding a hotel for us. We visited the Mayan Ruins and got some souveniors. Saturday night, we slept in Copan, and then came to Gracias on Sunday. We had a birthday lunch with Paola, had naptime, and went to the hot springs. On Monday, Jennifer and my mom came to school and observed my classroom. They were able to give me lots of great tips because unfortunately my kids decided to act the exact same way they always do, even with visitors in the room! It was actually really helpful though, because I haven't really had a lot of teacher feedback these last two years of teaching. Monday evening, we hung out at my house and met the neighbors, as well as the other teachers. The comedor made us a typical Honduran meal, which we enjoyed with the other teachers, as well as Shelly's family! Tuesday morning, I went to school, and my mom and Jennifer headed back to San Pedro Sula (yes, they braved the buses by themselves!). Like I said, it was a great week, but quite a whirlwind!





So, because of my heart-to-hearts with my teacher visitors, I decided to move things around in my classroom. I reorganized the desks, stacked up boxes, and changed my behavior management tactics. I've also been spending a lot of time on YouTube, listening to lots of Love and Logic seminar clips. I realized that I have missed two years of professional growth, so I'm trying to catch up. I do a lot of self-reflection in everything I do, and so I have always done teacher-reflections of myself but.... that's about the extent of my growth. :) The things I've added to my teaching methods in the last month have helped a lot, and I hope to continue until the end of the year! ... We'll see :)

About two weeks ago, I wrote a very, very long email to my sister, Emily, and then tried to send it and nothing would happen. So, I closed my computer and waited until I was back at my house. When I opened my computer again, it was completely blank. My computer had completely crashed, and I had no idea why. I asked around, and one of our teachers has a nephew that fixes computers. He offered to take a look at it. Eventually he figured out the problem, and it was not a problem that could be fixed. However, he said he could pull as much off my computer and then redo all my programs and start over. He charged me 20 bucks and was able to give my computer back with all the programs on it still! They're all in Spanish, I lost most of my word documents, and have no pictures saved from my last two years here, but.... I still have the internet and a webcam that works haha. So that was kind of crazy, kind of sad, but ultimately definitely not as bad as it could have been.

I've been staying up later. I think it has to do, in part, with the next 'bullet'

I found a free podcast from HowStuffWorks.com called 'Stuff You Missed in History Class'. I'm minorly obsessed with it- which is fine, because I downloaded like
200. So, that has been entertaining, and also nice to listen to when I'm grading or things like that.

I'm just always proud of times when I don't actually procrastinate. :) And, last quarter, I had 7 kids fail, so only one is pretty great!

Catelin, Paola (our 5th grade neighbor), and I went to Santa Rosa to celebrate Paola's birthday. We met Ana there, got pedicures, had some delicious food, went to a concert, and stayed at a hotel. It was fun!






Next week is Semana Santa, or Holy Week. Everyone is going on vacation, but I'm staying home to work and save money for a trip at the end of the year. So.... I'm going to be job searching like crazy! I made up a schedule for each day and all the things I need to accomplish before I lounge around for the day. :) It should be pretty interesting, being by myself, with nothing to occupy my time except work, internet, movies, books, cooking, and the great outdoors. It's obvious what I would choose if left without a schedule.... check lists really are magic for me :) Wish me luck!!

Finally, we're about two months away from finishing the year. I have slowly started making myself think about 'the end'. I'm pretty sure it's going to be one of the most difficult things I've done- leaving this place that I've come to really love- but I hope I will be able to enjoy these last couple months while giving myself some closure! again... wish me luck :)

Weekendz Updatez (it's cooler if you add the 'z')

whoops! I guess time flies when you're having fun! Although it hasn't been quite as fun as ... busy.... but still. I should have reported earlier :)

I usually think of my blogging entries while I'm walking up the mountain after school and come up with some stellar idea, but by the time I actually get up to my house I'm super tired, have to start supper, or have grading to do. So since I've had approximately a month of walking, I'm just going to have a random smattering of activities! Enjoy!

Four weekends ago, we had our second quarter conferences a few weekends ago. My kids are actually doing all right. All except two of my students' averages went up from Quarter 1 to Quarter 2, and one of those was from a 100 to a 99. :) The other student is someone that just never does homework- or turns in tests with three answers filled out. Are you serious? That drives me nuts. This last week I told my kids that if they all got 80% or higher on their Spelling test that I would make brownies. I usually have at least 5 kids fail because they don't study. EVERY SINGLE KID GOT 80 OR ABOVE. bahhh. So, making brownies tonight. :)

In language, the students are supposed to do a research report. I have them go through the process of notecards, bibliographies, and gathering the research, but then I just have them write a 5-paragraph essay. Here's an excerpt from one of my student's "papers":

And another person that are woman that mame we starn that want to recuperit that want to recuperate the argulla. Dante want to recuperate the argolla of the life etern Dante have the argolla first but Vigil siid one man that are like of the inferno but that men are very silenc men

These only can play tallest of 18 year but lille boys play these gamie beuese have a lot of ations and becuese wo very esi to use the control. But the game no are aproile of littl boys becues som parts are scare and some of person that like the blood.

There was three pages of this. And sadly, I understood all of it. :) Most of my students have much better English/writing skills than this, but it's hard to figure out what to do with the few that really have no idea what is going on. I don't know how to help them because by sixth grade, I don't know how much time I can take out of our weekly tutoring sessions just trying to teach English. Thankfully, most of my kids have become much better writers/speakers through the year. This week we focused on the noun/verb agreeing- for example, saying she is or he doesn't vs she are and he don't (I hear that all day, he don't have his desk clean! she don't listen to the directions!) The problem is that English is so stinking confusing! We made a chart saying if the noun is singular it will have no "s" and the singular verb usually has an "s". So, one of my students asked, "If I talk to you, it's just one person, so I say 'you is?'" nope. luckily one of the girls started singing "You are the only exception" by Paramour and I said, "Perfect! You are the only exception! YOU can be the exception!" ... although not quite the only one ;) but it's a start!

Three weekends ago, we visited La Union, which is another school in the Vida Abundante school district. It was really nice to hang out with the other teachers, and we also got to see their Fiesta Tipica and actually enjoy it instead of working the whole time! I ate so much food. :)



at Fiesta Tipica in La Union- rosquillas and ayote- two of my favorite Honduran dishes! rosquillas are bready rings that they soak in a honey mixture until they get soft. Ayote is like a squash that they also soaked in honey. mmmmmm sweeeett.



a typical meal. avocado, plantains, beans, cheese. and always tortillas. yum.




after riding a ferris wheel in Honduras. seriously the scariest thing ever. I know I'm in my 20s and supposed to be all dangerous and throwing caution to the wind so - I did. And I totally regret it. This was the scariest, fastest thing I'd ever been on. And I couldn't get off. DON'T DO IT!!!!!



Poor Jennifer had to sit with me in the seat while I tried hard not to freak out too much. I'd also like to take this opportunity to apologize to my sister, Emily, for always making fun of her getting scared by the seat rocking on the Ferris wheel. I understand now.



Two weekends ago, we had Spring Break!! This is a change from last year's schedule. Last year we worked from January to the middle of April with no days off and it was awful. The kids were sick, the teachers were sick, no one was learning.... :) So, this year we got a Spring Break! I went to Tegucigalpa with my friend Ana and stayed with her family for a few days. It was so great! They were so hospitable and it was fun to hang out with a family. Ana and I ran errands, vegged and watched movies, finally had some free reading time (I had to read Twilight cuz one of my students was reading it for reading points, but I also read Atonement and finished up Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. Also, before I finish up this book parenthesis, I highly recommend Enrique's Journey- it's a story of a boy from Honduras trying to travel to the US. Super good. OK back to real blog :)) It was fun to be in a city, but also kind of overwhelming. We went to a grocery store and I almost peed my pants, there were so many things I wanted. :) I did break down and buy some Dr. Pepper, but most of the things (like cheddar cheese! and chocolate syrup!) I left behind for the sake of having money to spend on Little Cesaer's pizza and Dunkin Donuts!



Greasy, fatty, delicious food!! And the melons in the background :)

We also went to a sweet Cuban club a few times with our friends and had a great time dancing- real, Latin dancing, not the American grind haha.


This last weekend, we just relaxed. I made a budget for myself (!!!) for I think, the first time in my life. I don't really need to budget here because I have plenty of money for everything I do/need, but I decided I should probably get into the habit for when I'm back in the States in a few months with no money (speaking of, if you hear of teaching jobs... I'm interested :)). Other than creating my envelopes full of cash, I watched movies, took a walk, hung out with the kids, and baked a cake. Didn't write a blog tho. With all the free time, I probably should have so .... that's why I'm doing it today!


Hope you all are doing well. This COMING weekend, my mom and our friend, Jennifer, are coming to visit!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I'm pretty excited. :D) Wish us luck as they experience my adventurous life! :)

Weekly Shopping Spreeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Every Wednesday, one of our administrators, Mr. Rodrigo, kindly drives all of us mountain teachers down to town to get groceries for the week. We MUST leave the school at 3:01 (the bell rings at 3) so we can get ahead of the buses and make it down in time. When leaving town, we must be ready by 4:00 (en punto!-- on the dot!) to get back up to pick up Mr. Rodrigo's wife and kids at the school. So, you can imagine that Wednesday afternoons can be pretty hectic. I think my most stressful part of the week is then, trying to get everything we need for the house, as well as various things for myself.

Now, here in Gracias, there is no such thing as a Target or Wal-Mart. We have specific stores and shops for our specific items. I thought it would be kind of fun to document at least one Wednesday so you can get a taste of my shopping experience each week. :)

Yesterday, we left at 3:01, as usual. I had run out of my classroom without shoes since I leave my work shoes in the classroom and wear tennis shoes up and down the mountain. Once in the truck, I was safe to put on my shoes, but I knew it was a good choice not to have done it in my classroom since Mr. Rodrigo had already backed out of his parking spot and was heading out! We drove down to town, and I talked with him about sweet places to visit around Honduras.

The Bank:

The first stop is usually the bank. I don't always have to go, but this week I need to pay for rent and internet plus the groceries so I went and pulled out 2000 Lempiras ($100). I was actually pretty lucky this week because there were only a few people in front of me. We don't have an ATM in Gracias, so everyone goes to the bank to draw out money, pay bills, exchange, etc. Sometimes there's a line all the way out the door and we spend most of our time in line, but this week, I was in and out in about 10 minutes.

Market:

This week for our little group, my job was to go the market. I bought three cuentas (accounts) worth of fruits and vegetables- one for Maggie and Tyler, one for our house, and one of various individual snacks. :) For our house this week, I bought two pounds of carrots, two pounds of broccoli, one pound of green beans, one tomato, one pound of white onions, two heads of garlic, three pounds of potatoes, five bananas, five green peppers, and a pineapple. Total? 207 Lemps, or about $10.50. I also got three cantaloupe for 25 lemps ($1.05!!) that are super delicious.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.... the other members of our group were off doing their 'duties'. We kind of take turns as to who does group stuff and then just settle bills back up at the house. Tyler went to the post office to check if anyone had gotten any mail, Maggie did her household grocery shopping, Catelin had a bunch of school errands to run, and Jennifer and Shelly did our grocery shopping at Dinora's. Dinora's Mini Super is a nice little grocery store that has a lot of nice things like peanut butter. :) We usually get meat for the week (chicken, sometimes some ground beef), bread, tortillas, cereal, milk, paper towels, etc. Our total is usually around $50 for the four of us.

After I finished at the market, I had a couple of errand-y things to do. I stopped at a papeleria, literally, 'paper store' but it's more like a school supply store. I love this place. You buy everything individually (so, one pencil, one eraser, five pieces of computer paper). This week, I was there to buy a card for a birthday party. The party is for one of the 9th grader's quinciñera (15th birthday, it´s kind of a big deal) so I needed a quinciñera card! The people at the store told me I could leave my three bags of veggies in the front and then a lady walked back to the card area with me and helped me look through the box of cards. At a lot of stores, the helpers kind of follow you around, try to hold your baskets, and watch you as you shop. Most of the time, I don´t really appreciate the worker-in-my-bubble thing, but this time was actually pretty helpful! I got my card and headed to the pharmacy for some deodorant. Finally, I headed for our last stop- Melanie´s.

Melanie´s is like our alternate grocery store. It doesn´t have as much selection, but it has tables out front and makes a great meeting place after our shopping. We also usually buy saldo (minutes for our phones) and filtered water there. However, this week Melanie happened to be out of both and it was 3:55! I quickly ran to another little shop that I know sells saldo, and got $5 on my phone. Then we all piled into Mr. Rodrigo´s truck and made one last stop at a gas station on the way back up the mountain for the waters. ($1 for each 5 gallon bottle)

There you have it! Our weekly trip down the mountain and a little bit of what we do. I promise, if anyone comes for a visit, we´ll buy something special on our trip to cook you. ;)

RETURN OF THE BUGS

Last year, I experienced a daily battle with insects and arachnids (that's spiders!) because they liked the taste of me a little more than I liked the taste of them. This year, I've been pretty lucky in the fact that my legs are not always covered in bug bites. However, I came back from Christmas and have been attacked ever since. I thought I'd use a little visual aid. Every where there is an arrow, I have been bit. And, it's not just one bite, it's like a four or five bite cluster. Pretty sure it's spiders. In my bed. Don't worry, I've Raid-ed and changed the sheets, but it might be a lost cause. So, my new catchphrase for things that don't quite go how I want them to... "At least it'll make a good blog!" :)

embarrassingly enough....

This is the part of the show where Laura Beth comes out and tells about her embarrassing happenings.
Enjoy.

So first of all, I had a great time being back in the US for awhile at Christmas (sorry it took awhile to get back into the blogging rhythm..) There were a few things that happened over break that were slightly embarrassing and I just blamed on culture shock, but one thing I definitely noticed was my lip pointing. APPARENTLY that's a Honduran thing :) If I want you to notice something/someone I just purse my lips in the direction I want you to look. The first time I realized it had no results at home was when I 'pointed' at someone at church asking Natalie who they were. She said, "Who WHO is?" a few times and I just kept 'pointing', thinking, I'm showing you! Why aren't you paying attention?? :) AWESOME.

Round two. Back in Honduras. I don't know what it is about traveling in groups, but I would most definitely take travel companions over sitting by myself in airports for 30 hours any day! Plus, for some reason when I'm with other people, I don't have quite the same bad luck I do when alone. :) Anyway, we got into San Pedro Sula and stayed at a hostel for the night. Most of us teachers met up and stayed together (Shelly, Jennifer, Catelin, Maggie, Tyler). The next morning we got up early-ish and got ready for our day of traveling. We'd hired a private bus since we had a big group and LOTS of luggage, and the driver was supposed to be coming at 9. I went to the bathroom at 8 and came out at about 8:35. No, I didn't eat anything bad. The door just stopped working. For the first 5 minutes, I thought Tyler was trying to play a trick on me and keep it closed with his foot but... no. The lock just stayed locked and turning the knob did nothing to unlock it. My friends ran and got the people at the hotel who then proceeded to try and pry the door open... nothing. They told me to kick the door from the inside, so I started kicking the bottom of the door really hard.... until I heard everyone yelling at me to kick towards the doorknob...something about physics.... whoops :) The guy then decided to take apart the whole doorknob.... still didn't work. Finally, they pulled something or pried something ... I'm not even really sure what happened, but I made it out alive and our bus driver was like two hours late so everything worked out. :) There's a video on my Facebook page of my miraculous escape if you'd care to view it. :)

Another embarrassing moment happened the other day involving my skirt. I have a few navy skirts that are allowed for our uniform, but there's one that I've just never worn because the fabric is super wrinkle-prone and I don't have an iron. However, I (well actually the laundromat) did laundry this week and it was clean and not wrinkled yet, so I threw it on for Monday. Mondays are a pretty easy day for me; I have a few classes with my kids and a music class in the morning, but after lunch I don't have anything. I walked around, feeling cute in my cute unwrinkled skirt all day before heading to the bathroom at the lunch recess. I have 'hall' duty (outside halls) every day at recess, so I ran to the bathroom before starting my duty roll. When I was checking myself out in the mirror I realized something quite terrible: THE SKIRT WAS COMPLETELY SEE-THROUGH. So, not only had I been walking around all morning in it, but I now had to pace around the entire SUNNY courtyard for twenty minutes before I could do anything about it. (Because I was pretty sure the one day I left the kids alone because of a wardrobe malfunction would be the one day that someone's head would get cracked open). So, I tried to hug the walls and be inconspicuous about everything, but it was the longest 20 minutes of my life. After lunch, since I had no classes, I just sat at my desk and worked on things, so there were no skirt worries. However, at the end of the day, I had to run to the computer lab to print some things off, so I quick slipped on my work-out shorts underneath my skirt and headed out the door. I walked past the office and all the kids lined up outside, waiting for the buses... I smiled at a bunch of the kids, waved bye, continued on my way, and ran into Matis, one of the women that cleans our school. She said to me, "Miss, your skirt is up".... I panicked for a second, reached my hand back, and realized my skirt was tucked into my little short shorts. WORST MOMENT EVER.... and after walking past all those kids!! ahhh. I decided that I was just going to donate that skirt somewhere. I will never wear it again. :)

Finally, today one of my kids came up to me and was looking pretty intently at my face before finally asking, "Miss, why haven't you just ((squeezing a zit motion on his face because he didn't know the phrase "pop that zit")) .... awesome. Thank you sixth grade. And yes, I know you're just supposed to leave zits alone, but I most definitely went to the bathroom and popped that zit as soon as that period was over. At least today I didn't get stuck in there for half an hour or realize my clothes were see-through. :)